Another 220 people joined the dole queue in Kent last month despite a falling number of those out of work.

There were 16,770 jobseekers claiming unemployment benefits across the county in December even though employment increased across the South East and nationally.

The highest increase in claimants was in Thanet, up 140 to 2,340, while the largest decline of 45 was in Medway, which has the highest number of claimants at 3,445.

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The shortest dole queues were in Tunbridge Wells, down 10 to 455, followed by Sevenoaks, down 20 to 515.

Large increases were seen in Canterbury, Dover and Swale, each up 40 to 1,070, 1,240 and 1,775 respectively.

Unemployment across the South East fell by 20,000 to 170,000 in the three months to November.

Nationally, there were 1.71 million people out of work, down 110,000 on the previous quarter.

The unemployment rate stood at 5.1% across the country and at 3.7% in the South East, the lowest figure for any region.

The UK has its highest ever employment rate of 74% with a record 31.4 million people in work.

Libby Swift, work services manager at Maidstone Jobcentre, said: “Some employers take people on for the Christmas period and sometimes it is terminated just before Christmas, which might explain the rise in Kent.

“Some employers take people on for the Christmas period and sometimes it is terminated just before Christmas, which might explain the rise in Kent..." - Libby Swift, Maidstone Jobcentre

“But from an employment point of view, January is looking very encouraging.

“We have RBS coming to us with 30 to 40 vacancies, McDonald’s are looking for 130 crew members and we have a construction company in Tunbridge Wells looking for 120 jobs.”

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics show there were 49,000 unemployed people in Kent in the year to September 2015.

This was a decrease of 2,000 on the year to June 2015.

While Medway had 10,000 people out of work, the largest number in Kent, the highest unemployment rate was in Thanet at 8.2%, where 5,000 people were seeking jobs.

Medway’s unemployment rate for the year was 7.1%, followed by Gravesham at 7%, where 3,000 people were out of work.

The lowest rate was in Sevenoaks at 3.8%, where 2,000 people did not have a job.